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How to bind the VIBlend Silverlight Data Grid to indexed properties?

Article Information

This article relates to the VIBlend DataGrid for Silverlight. It contains a complete example which illustrates how to create a custom data source and then bind the DataGrid control to it.

How To

Bind the DataGrid to indexed properties

Solution

To achieve this, follow these steps:

1. Create DataTemplates that are bound to indexed properties.

<DataTemplate x:Key="LastNameCellTemplate">
<Grid>
    <TextBlock Text="{Binding [LastName], Mode=OneWay}"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>

<DataTemplate x:Key="FirstNameCellTemplate">
<Grid>
    <TextBlock Text="{Binding [FirstName], Mode=OneWay}"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>

2. Create a new DataGrid instance. Set the CellDataTemplate property of the DataGrid’s BoundFields to point to the DataTemplates.

<viblend:DataGrid x:Name="dataGrid" Width="400" Height="280" AutoGenerateColumns="True">
<viblend:DataGrid.BoundFields>
    <viblend:BoundField Text="FirstName" Width="150" CellDataTemplate="{StaticResource FirstNameCellTemplate}"/>
    <viblend:BoundField Text="LastName" Width="150" CellDataTemplate="{StaticResource LastNameCellTemplate}"/>
</viblend:DataGrid.BoundFields>
</viblend:DataGrid>

3. Create a new class that will represent a single record of the DataGrid.

C#

public class Person : INotifyPropertyChanged
{   
    public Person()
    {
    }

    private Dictionary<string, object> data = new Dictionary<string, object>();

    public object this[string key]
    {
        get
        {
            if (!data.ContainsKey(key))
            {
                data[key] = null;
            }
            return data[key];
        }
        set
        {
            data[key] = value;
            if (this.PropertyChanged != null)
            {
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(""));
            }
        }
    }

    public IEnumerable<string> Keys
    {
        get
        {
            return data.Keys;
        }
    }

    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
}

VB .NET

Public Class Person
    Implements INotifyPropertyChanged
    Public Sub New()
    End Sub

    Private data As Dictionary(Of String, Object) = New Dictionary(Of String, Object)()

    Default Public Property Item(ByVal key As String) As Object
        Get
            If (Not data.ContainsKey(key)) Then
                data(key) = Nothing
            End If
            Return data(key)
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Object)
            data(key) = value
            RaiseEvent PropertyChanged(Me, New PropertyChangedEventArgs(""))
        End Set
    End Property

    Public ReadOnly Property Keys() As IEnumerable(Of String)
        Get
            Return data.Keys
        End Get
    End Property

    Public Event PropertyChanged As PropertyChangedEventHandler
End Class

4. Create a new generic List of Person objects and set the ItemsSource property of the DataGrid, in order to bind it to the list.

C#

List<Person> listOfPersons = new List<Person>();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    Person person = new Person();
    person["FirstName"] = "FirstName" + i;
    person["LastName"] = "LastName" + i;
    listOfPersons.Add(person);
}
this.dataGrid.ItemsSource = listOfPersons;

VB .NET

Dim listOfPersons As List(Of Person) = New List(Of Person)()
For i As Integer = 0 To 9
    Dim person As New Person()
    person("FirstName") = "FirstName" & i
    person("LastName") = "LastName" & i
    listOfPersons.Add(person)
Next i
Me.dataGrid.ItemsSource = listOfPersons

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